Sakura's New Life
by ThePineappleBus
Summary: Sakura was told she was abandoned by her team in Konoha, while her team was told the Akatsuki has killed her. She can't remember what happened but she decides start a new life with the people she thinks 'rescued' her: The Akatsuki. That is until she runs into her former team 2 years later, memories slowly come back.
1. Crossroads

_Prologue _

_Konoha 11 was seen walking towards the village entrance in completion of their previous mission. _

_Izumo and Kotetsu were on guard watch and were prepared for their peaceful morning to be disturbed by how loud the team would become once arriving home as usual. It would always be as if it were some sort of routine…_

_Naruto, Kiba and Choji would already be talking and drooling over how much ramen they planned to eat while Shikamaru walked alongside the Jonin, Kakashi and Yamato quietly, trying to get out of something troublesome like treating them which all three have been once tricked into doing in the past. Lee would probably be running on his hands or trying to make a simple walk difficult trying to fit training in which consequently resulted in Tenten yelling at him. Neji, Hinata and Shino were notably the quietest in the team as Neji and Shino preferred solitude and Hinata, well only wishes to be joining Naruto in whatever his plans were that afternoon. That leaves Ino and Sakura who time to time would be seen throughout everyone either making plans to eat with Naruto's group or just alongside each other. _

_Yes, that's basically how it went, but this morning something was slightly off. _

_The team arrived dead silent, their faces looking drained and filled with dread? Remorse? Or was it just anger that looked plain obvious in Shikamaru and Yamato's faces. Whatever it was only lead Izumo and Kotetsu to look at each other as if they knew it was obviously a failure of a mission or they were just tired. The latter made more sense as it was an S-Rank mission they were surprised they were disappointed that they were so quiet, shouldn't they be happy that it's nice and quiet? _

"_Well, welcome back! I need to make my morning report to Lady Tsunade already, so I'll let her know you've all arrived safely." Kotetsu said in hopes of waking them up fully_

_Kakashi placed a hand on his shoulder and nodded before adding, "Thanks but we need to head up there anyways there's something important she must know from our mission"._

_Kotetsu nodded as the group made way to the Hokage noticing that, that one thing that was off wasn't the fact that that Naruto wasn't complaining about being hungry, or that Lee actually seemed tired it was that someone was missing…_

_A shinobi must always put the mission first._

_A shinobi must never show tears._

_A shinobi must never show any weakness._

_As Hokage, Tsunade broke four shinobi rules in 5 minutes, 5 minutes is all it took._

"_How do you 'lose' a comrade?!" she tried redirecting her anger to her desk which resulted it to completely collapse sending paperwork and pieces of wood everywhere. She knew yelling at the team would get nowhere as they were feeling the same as she, it was her fault to send them out on this mission which was far too dangerous. Fists balled and head bowed she cursed under her breath as she was fighting herself, Shizune stepped in front of her holding Tsunade's pig TonTon apologizing for Tsunade's sudden behavior. Although Shizune wanted to do the same exact thing exactly as she could have talked her out of assigning them this mission, it seemed everyone wanted to shoulder the burden of their missing or fallen comrade._

_Yamato stepped forward and bowed in forgiveness, "Forgive me Tsunade-sama it was my fault and I-"_

"_I should have retreated the whole team back to safety knowing we had a slim chance, as a team captain I apologize for not watching her" Kakashi added in stepping forward slowly as well._

"_Kakashi don't act as if she couldn't hold her own and she was helpless like as if she was just an escort. My disciples are stronger than that, it's what she wanted to prove she wanted to prove that her training with me was not a wasted effort." _

"_I didn't mean to offend her I just know there was more in my capability."_

"_You're all dismissed." Tsunade whispered facing her window._

_And with that Konoha 11 left alongside Yamato and Kakashi speechless, leaving the report of what happened on what was left of her desk._

* * *

Sakura opened her eyes, surprised that she even could. She had no doubt her comrades had come to save her from the ambush and she was now sitting at-

'Where am I?' Sakura thought

Realizing how much pain she was in as she struggled to get up she noticed she was in a very unfamiliar place. Was she taken hostage? Is she a hindrance to her team's mission? She groaned in pain as she tried to stand, losing balance watching the ground approach her face as she fell she winced. Only she didn't hit the ground like she thought and was lowered slowly instead of a harsh impact, her eyes widened as she looked back to see not a person but strings of chakra attached to her like a puppet. Memories flooded her now aching head while contemplating what was going on, she remembered Granny Chiyo controlling her this way which only lead to fear in realization that she was someone else's puppet now. She reached into her pouch looking for a kunai or something to cut her free although it was empty, she reached back instead to see if she could break free, once she lifted her arms up she screamed and cursed in pain almost passing out from how intense it was. 'They must know I'm trying to break free and they're preventing me' her inner self thought. But no, as a medic ninja she knew that wasn't it. She had a severely broken arm and was well aware of her other injuries she's sustained. She heard footsteps coming towards her, A whole team ready to finish her. Taking in her surroundings as she had been too distracted to do earlier she noticed she was in a cave particularly dark, trying not panic she closed her eyes and started to think.

'Okay now, I can't pinpoint where we are and how far away Naruto and the others are but I might be able to take these guys down if I can just focus…'

She started to calm down and sense the chakra's of the others, her eyes widened with fear as she sensed that there were 4 people approaching her and they had an unbelievable amount of chakra which seemed eerily familiar. There was no way she could… tears rolled down her eyes in fear of what was going to happen to her and only hoping that her team didn't pursue her. She laid her head down on the cold cave floor in defeat, closing her eyes.

* * *

_Naruto sat at the training grounds with everybody, he remembered the three stumps in the ground and exactly where he was tied up to one. He sighed and leaned against that particular stump and looked to both his sides, empty. He now let himself down and lost two of his team mates, one of which defected and left to avenge his clan.. Sasuke. Now Sakura who was the last he had expected to lose and all the more painful, he liked her since the day he saw her at the academy but that innocent childish crush grew into more without her knowledge and now she could be dead or about to be all because he couldn't protect one more comrade like he promised. He remembered his Sensei's words the same time he was tied up, 'Those who break the rules are scum, and those who abandon their friends are worse than scum'._

"_Damn it…" Naruto mumbled_

_The rest of the group were as quiet around him as he was sure they had memories and regrets about that day as well._

_Sai another member of team 7 who was originally Sasuke's replacement but was more to him than that walked up to the group. Sai hadn't had the best knowledge when it came to emotions and how other people felt but he knew that they were undoubtedly upset. _

"_I'm sensing something's wrong?" He questioned knowing the answer_

_Everyone nodded or shook their head which initially confused Sai but he had read in a book that it was common to deny something troubling which lead him to remember that…_

"_Oh yeah where's Sakura? I have a book of hers I borrowed that I'm now finished with, its best I return it now before I forget" Sai chimed in nervously laughing in hopes of lightening the mood._

_Ino grabbed Sai's hand and walked him a few meters away from the group who gave looks as if they knew what she was already going to tell him._

"_Oh I was hoping someone would let me know what was going on, how did the mission go?" Sai smiled._

_Ino avoided eye contact in fear she would tear up, "The mission went fine, completed and successful but-"_

"_Then why does everyone look depressed? Like if someone had died or something" Sai interrupted._

_He saw Ino flinch at his words and knew he had said something wrong, he just didn't know exactly what was wrong with asking why everyone looked so sad he thought about it for a few seconds before adding things up._

"…_Unless?" he asked._

_Ino had been fighting tears back from what he just said and nodded, "Sakura… the Akatsuki had shown up only it wasn't truly them, Hinata could see about 30% of their chakra was that of an Akatsuki and the rest were normal. We were holding up fine but no one knows exactly what happened to her, everyone was caught up in their own battles and it wasn't until the end that this weird aloe plant guy came out of the ground saying he was glad he atleast got one of us and that was all he needed for now, leading all of them to retreat."_

_Sai looked down towards his feet trying to think of something to say but all that could pass his lips were "I see…"_

* * *

Sakura's eyes still closed could feel that she was surrounded but by less atleast two people this time. She hoped they didn't see her tears to consider her as weak.

"Jeez you reopened your wounds, someone get Kakazu so he can sew her up again, Sasori you weren't supposed to let her move!" She heard a familiar voice say.

'Sew me up? Were these people helping me? Sasori? Kakazu? Why did those names sound so familiar…?' She thought before passing out from blood loss, voices slurred around her and her head began to spin.

She then on the ground where she had been left except this time sitting up right against the wall still sitting in her own blood 'Yuck', she thought she was at least hoping they would clean her up a bit and make her comfortable. Why wouldn't they? She reached her arms up to stretch suddenly remembering they were broken and tried to stop, but something else stopped her, 'Oh yeah I'm a puppet'

"You might not want to move, unless you like causing a great deal of pain to yourself." A voice near her spoke out.

"Why do you care?" Sakura tried to find out where the voice was coming from, trying to turn her head to see who it was that helped her not once, from falling on her face and now from hurting her arms again. She followed the strings with her eyes to see the person was directly in front of her, still hidden in the shadow.

"I don't" Footsteps approached her walking out of the shadows, "After all you've killed me many times before, I'm simply following orders".

'Following orders?' she thought, as soon as that thought entered her mind she saw the infamous cloak everyone has knowledge about. Black dark coat with red clouds on it… this was the Akatsuki which meant…

"Tell me you haven't forgotten me right?" A man who looked to be in his 20's with red hair was staring down at her smiling.

"Sasori…" She never expected to encounter him again, she thought he had died fear then ran throughout her but she couldn't get up and run she was forced to stare at her enemy in the eye.

**(A/N: All of Akatsuki is alive, I'll upload a second chapter as this is a relatively short story, reviews would be nice! :) tell me what you want to happen. If this gets reviews i'll finish it, if not i won't waste my time. thank you!)**


	2. Comrades

**(A/N: Thanks for my first review! :] I'm getting the hang of this story thing. Enjoy! Like I did oh and sorry for the confusion between the italics and regular, there was meant to be a line break between them separating.)**

_Back in Konoha._

_Sai was just now informed by Ino what had happened to a member of his team, immediately he felt almost as they did: hopeless. That was until he remembered something…_ and smiled big.

_Naruto looked at Sai, he still had a long ways to go before learning the wrong and right time to smile, he scoffed and looked away. "How can you still smile after knowing what happened?"_

_"Because I know that we'll think of a plan soon enough to save her, that's why we're all here right? This is a meeting and we're all going to think of what to do, so I'm smiling because I'm happy that we're a team that refuses to give up even if it cost our lives, I haven't been a part of here for so long but I'm happy because I learn friendship better from you all better than any book"_

_Everyone was shocked by his response, no one really knew what they were doing here; sure a pursuit was on everyone's mind but the given circumstances and recent events it was hard to think about,_

_"Sai's right…if we take any longer and we'll never hear the end of it from her on how slow we took besides it shouldn't be hard to find her, you could see that forehead for miles." Ino giggled remembering her friend's short temper. _

_Everybody turned to Shikamaru and Neji in hopes they had a plan, they were notably the Group's geniuses. _

_Someone let out a big obvious sigh, "As troublesome as it is we can't pursue her without The Hokage's orders. Plus besides that we wouldn't know where to look." He glanced over at the Hyugas, Kiba and Shino, "Konoha's eyes, nose, and specialty, in other words our best tracking team even lost her completely…Also, we all know Sakura's pretty strong and can hold her own. She would have never let herself be taken hostage so easily, which could also mean that she might've been defea-"_

_"Shut up, there's no way… No way can she be…" He muttered, "She should have people that care about her come and help her, if you don't care then don't come." Naruto stopped in silence and clenched his fists, ultimately causing Shikamaru to stop talking._

_He had obviously worded this all wrong, he unintentionally just degraded Hinata, Neji, Shino and Kiba's ability and unintentionally tried to make his comrades give up. He stopped completely after seeing the anger and sadness his words caused among his comrades, he sighed 'I ended up making it more troublesome than to begin with' he thought. _

_"That's not it, what I'm trying to say is…" He really had no idea what he was trying to say, he wanted to get Sakura back as much as they did, they just had to be reasonable. He hesitated then felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Kakashi who then gave him a slight nod as if to say 'I'll take it from here'. _

"_What Shikamaru is trying to say is that something like this was bound to happen, we're Shinobi after all. We all did exceptional on an S-Rank mission considering there was only one casualty but one thing for sure is they won't kill her yet and she won't go down so easily, there's time."_

_Kakashi had a habit of appearing out of nowhere; Shikamaru felt reassured but was that really what he was trying to say?_

_The group silenced, no one wanted to waste time but yet no one was eager to disrespect their Sensei._

_That was until Naruto pointed at the memorial stone that was a short distance away_

_This memorial stone honored names of fallen Shinobi who have been died in action, Naruto remembers the first time he ever learned its purpose. Kakashi was seen standing before it often, before explaining to his students that it listed all the names of those he loved, those he regretted he couldn't save. _

_"That's where her name will end up too… if we don't do something, we can't waste time." He stammered_

_Kakashi stared at the stone before returning his attention back to Naruto._

_ 'Nothing's changed' Kakashi thought. He could tell Naruto kept the lesson he had taught his students at this training ground as his personal value._

_Kakashi sighed in defeat and looked over at Shikamaru_

"_I guess I better run it by the Fifth" He sighed before withdrawing in a cloud of smoke._

_Shikamaru couldn't help but grin, knowing from the start that it was impossible to convince them otherwise. _

"_Any information anybody has about the Akatsuki is valuable as of now"._

_With that, the team relayed information from experience, studies or just rumors leading to:_

_Sasori: Shows his expertise in Puppetry as said by Sakura and Kankuro, It's been noted he had a technique that could control others acting as spies or to his own personal purpose. The sand had council members that were victimized as well as Kabuto for a short period._

_Hidan and Kakuzu: The immortals, Hidan who couldn't be killed and Kakuzu who contained 5 chakra natures within 5 hearts. It was best to separate this duo if they were to ever run into them._

_Itachi: Notorious for Genjutsu and his strength, encountering him was likely as he was a former Konoha Shinobi._

_Deidara: Explosive kekkei genkai from clay, which seemed to detonate at his command. It's said that his explosives can be diffused with a lightning technique._

_Kisame: The tail-less beast, had incredible chakra and strength. A swordsman commonly seen alongside Itachi_

_These are the results that would they could all use to their advantage_

_Now the group had intel about the organization's strengths and (some) weaknesses. Shikamaru felt responsible for conjuring up a plan and formation. There was pressure especially still remembering about his failure to bring back Sasuke, and those guys weren't even Akatsuki. Still they were all stronger now, and maybe he could make up for it._

_He always thought of strategies as a game of Shogi, as the game required a unique strategy against a different opponent. You never act without acknowledging your other pieces; it was essential, as for one wrong move could leave others vulnerable. Before he planned formation he forgot to ask the most important part of understanding the enemy._

"_Out of everyone why would they choose Sakura? It can't just be because she's exceptionally close to Naruto, I'm sure if any one of us were in her situation there wouldn't be a difference." He asked_

_Neji looked up towards his team, "It's obvious, it's because she's…"_

Sakura

"The disciple of a Sannin/Hokage, student to the famous Copycat ninja, Best friends to Konoha's Jinchuuriki, and former teammate to the Uchiha Clan's survivor" Sasori recited, "I haven't forgot about you, and as I can also recall we have unfinished business."

He crouched down to face the Kunoichi, her eyes refused to meet his turning her gaze towards the ground.

She smirked, "You're better off killing me now if you think you're going to get any information out of me."

Sasori grabbed a fistful of the girl's hair and forced her to look at him, "What makes you think we want you for your intelligence? It seems that's the last thing you have by the way you're talking to me." He had the perfect chance to just kill her here rather than be disrespected.

"Sasori, remember the orders." A voice from behind them nagged, resulting in Sasori's grip on her hair to loosen.

_'__I forgot there were others, this must be__their__hideout__. __Also orders from who__? __Were they orders to keep me alive__?'_ Questions started to fill her mind; unlike earlier she hoped this time her friends were coming to save her.

She jerked her head away to withdraw from his hold, "My team should be on the way here now, and I'll be positive about your death" She mocked, she knew she sounded a little too confident in what she really believed.

"Your friends huh… Well I'm still alive" He joked and then stood up, "They gave up days ago, didn't they Deidara?"

Deidara stepped forward having been the other voice she had just heard

He looked over at his partner and then towards the girl, who was staring at him in disbelief. He was confused, this was the girl that his partner had trouble with?

What was Sasori doing actually wasting time? Sasori was the definition of the word hypocrite. All his partner had to do was bury her current memories or whatever he did and **then** start the lies! It was pointless this way, but yet he decided to give in. Whatever, he could just use this as leverage.

He put on a smirk and nodded, "He's right, I hear it was good battle too I'm pretty pissed I didn't get to join – un"

'_Days passed?' _She initially thought they were lying but there would be no way to actually tell. She was in a cave, with no sunlight and had been unconscious multiple times. She lost herself in her thought trying to think about the well-being of her teammates, were they okay? Why'd they retreat? Why'd they leave her here…

The two Akatsuki members glanced at each other and nodded with a grin after seeing the Kunoichi clearly distressed now would be the perfect time to do it, Sasori waved a few hand signs before:

"Sennō Sōsa no Jutsu!"

**(A/N: It wasn't said how this Jutsu actually worked so I just compared to to Ino's. Oh and it basically means brainwash/sleeper jutsu :p )**

The thoughts started fading from her head causing her to relax; she quickly looked down to see if it was possible she was losing consciousness from reopening a wound again then forgot what she was looking for. Upon panicking and trying to hold a grip onto reality confusion overtook her until it was all unclear.

'_Who are they? Why are they smiling at me? Why am I in pain?' _Was all she could think about.

"Took you long enough Sasori, jeez this was all you had to do and here you were wasting everyone's time, I swear next time I'll just take my sweet ass time on the next mission and-"

Deidara stopped clearly realizing he was being ignored and sighed.

"There's a reason in everything, start appreciating what I do. I was seeing what was important to her and what wasn't. I didn't let her forget everything." He retorted which lead to a small argument between the two.

She had no idea what they were talking about but upon hearing arguing made her uneasy, a feeling that felt eerily familiar like as if she was once with two people who would constantly argue and disagree. '_What were their names again…?'_

"I'm sure there's other ways to get that Naruto brat anyways –un"

Hearing that name made her light up, _'That's right! His name was Naruto! The other one was…" _She eventually gave up as it was too hard to remember she focused on what she already knew and asked

"What about Naruto?" She called out distracting the two from their conversation

"You idiot you actually let her remember that-"Deidara was shoved before he could continue

"You don't remember?" Of course she didn't his jutsu should be flawless, but he had to be sure that he hadn't underestimated her again and have it lead to future trouble.

She shook her head and stared unknowingly at the stranger before her

"Did you save me? My arm and my head hurts" She looked down examining her body, "Oh you stitched and treated my wounds! You must have saved me, thank you. But what happened? I heard you say Naruto, where is he?"

Sasori crouched down to eye level with her again this time taking a different approach, instead of grabbing her hair he stroked it calmingly and smiled back at her.

"I take it you don't remember why you're with the Akatsuki…" He whispered.

Deidara let out a grunt, he kind of understood why he would let her somehow remember Naruto but why let her know we're the Akatsuki

'_Akatsuki?' _The word alone bothered her, _'I don't know why I have a bad feeling right now but I should be fine, besides they helped me and they're the only ones that can answer my questions.'_

"I know you helped me but why?" she looked eye to eye with the red haired man as he stroked her hair.

"We passed by seeing your team in battle on our way to completing a mission, upon returning we saw you alone, in a state worse than you are now. We just decided to just take you back and treat you, as it would be cruel to leave you how you were; even for us Akatsuki."

He was one hell of a liar, the Akatsuki doesn't give a damn about anyone's well-being besides their own and their on some cases their partners. He even put on a concerned expression in front of her just to add a touch.

"So they all left me then huh…so I was basically abandoned…." she couldn't remember how her team thought of her but it obviously wasn't as important considering she was left behind apparently dying she couldn't help but let this anger her.

"Think of it as sacrifice for the better, we actually care about you –un" Deidara answered rejoining the conversation. This was the real mission he agreed upon.

"You guys care about me?"

"Why would we take you back and treat you if we didn't care about you –un"

'_Did Sasori's jutsu erase her common sense too?'_ he thought.

"So what happens to me next?" Sakura really didn't want to return to people who didn't care about her.

She heard footsteps along with a new voice approaching, "That's up to you, tell me out loud all you remember about yourself and you should be able to figure it out."

Sasori and Deidara knew someone was sent to check the status of the current mission they were assigned.

"Well okay… My name's Sakura Haruno, I'm from Konoha. I was sacrificed on a mission with my former comrades to the Akatsuki. I'm practically dead, and I still don't know… what I'll do next…"

"If you don't know what you'll do next, why don't you stay with us? Consider us your new team–un"

She looked up and smiled at her new comrades

"My name's Sakura Haruno, I'm from Konoha. I was sacrificed on a mission by people who don't care about me for the better. I'm not dead, and I found people who care about me. I'll become a part of The Akatsuki"

A pair of crimson eyes appeared before her before passing glances at Sasori and Deidara.

"You did better than expected." He said to the two, "All of you come with me."

Something about this guy seemed so familiar to her, his eyes? No it's more than that, as if she knows him from somewhere… she felt really comfortable being around him for some reason. Like as if she were safe, she concluded that she was overthinking since she felt safe with all of them individually anyways but she didn't even know their names._'__Names could wait.' _she nodded to herself

She stood quickly doubling over with pain forgetting about her injuries, quickly being grabbed before hitting the ground.

It was the guy with the red hair, "Thanks… um…"

"Sasori", he said pointing at himself in a stern voice before pointing at his partner with the name of Deidara.

She repeated the names in her head as she was told them, the new names of her comrades. Sakura looked at the guy with the crimson eyes, she really wanted to know his name. "And you're…?"

"We'll finish introductions with the others, come quickly" He replied

Sakura started walking alongside them eventually falling behind, her injuries exhausted her. She didn't want to hinder them so she held her breath and endured the pain.

They must have known she was struggling, a small bird made of what seemed to be clay flew under her relieving her from walking the rest of the way and was flown to catch up to the rest of her team.

Deidara turned and gave her a smile and she assumed it was his bird.

'_They must really care about me'_.

**(A/N: I had a really hard time with this chapt. Surprisingly :O, it's probably changed like 3 times and I'm glad on the way this turned out hope you enjoy !)**

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	3. Hatred

(A/N: Thanks for the reviews & f&f guys :] again I apologize for any typos or grammar problems. Also I know some people may be confused about the setting cause I'm stupid and forgot to mention, this takes place around the time Sasuke recruits Karin, Suigetsu , etc. all members of the Akatsuki are alive instead of Orochimaru of course. )

Sakura

She had been lying on this bird for a while now, occasionally asking questions trying to make sense of what was going and also trying to kill time. Her attempts at conversation usually fell flat by only receiving short answers or one worded replies or the occasional 'Hn' from one of them. How far could they get in a cave anyways?

They stopped walking suddenly interrupting her thoughts; Sakura sat up to see what the reason was.

She saw they were facing another cave wall which contained a large seal.

"What is that?" she questioned expecting no answer.

"You could say it's basically a Gen-Jutsu technique" the man with the crimson eyes answered sounding annoyed. It was the first question of hers he decided to answer, ignoring the pointless ones like what his name was or where they were going. He then disabled the technique revealing a longer cave pathway before them

'_Gen-Jutsu huh… Then this must be so no one can find wherever it is we're going'_She thought before lying her head back down.

They continued walking for what seemed like an hour to her.

"We're almost there you might want to get up and walk the rest of the way –un "Deidara called looking back at her.

That's right; if she were to meet the 'others' she didn't want to look so helpless. One thing she couldn't forget was her pride.

Sakura was helped off Deidara's bird with the help of Sasori's puppet technique before she even make her attempt to get up, though they didn't act as kind to her as they did from the start they still had to show her they cared.

'_There goes half of my pride.'_

"I'll walk the rest of the way myself, Sasori" He then withdrew the threads from her body and gave the girl her way.

Sakura gained her composure and clenched her fists focusing the pain on her hand rather than her whole body; they allowed her to pass by, surprised by how she was managing on her own.

Smiling to herself she thought '_How familiar… I always wanted others to watch my back, watch how strong I've grown to prove to Naru-'_She froze at the sudden memory then remembered she was told to sever ties between her former team since they had already done so to her. Her head spun around the thought of forgetting those she couldn't even fully remember and found herself on the verge of hyperventilation, she felt her body shiver before feeling a cold palm press against her forehead.

"She's pretty warm but what do I know –un"

Sasori attempted to walk up to her as well before an arm signaled him to stop.

"Give her space, let Deidara take care of it."

Deidara flicked her forehead trying to snap her out of it and shrugged at his partners, he didn't know how to 'take care of it'.

Her eyes looked distant and trying to get through to her failed.

She found it hard to breathe; only taking shallow breaths trying to ignore the voices around her, before feeling a flick on her forehead which only triggered more memories.

'_You know hiding your forehead like that only makes it stand out more, Sakura'_a familiar female voice filled her head.

She reached up and placed her touch on the hand that still remained on her forehead and glanced up at whose it was, _'No way…'_ she couldn't believe it, the face she saw was one from her childhood. The long blonde hair that was always tied up and always covered half her face was standing before her.

'_Ino…'_

She tightly embraced the figure she thought was her best friend who came back for her and that everything that happened was just a dream.

"What's wrong with her–un" the voice that came out of Ino was completely wrong, she looked up while releasing the embrace as her vision refocused into who she now saw was only Deidara who clearly looked disturbed at her previous actions.

"I'm sorry I thought you were…" How could she explain that she saw a resemblance between him and her friend who was a girl, without offending him?

"Never mind" she added, "Let's go" she turned and started walking away in hopes of making it seem like nothing.

"I thought told you to cut the ties you have with your old friends"

She stopped, she didn't know his name but that voice obviously could only come from him. That stern yet comforting way of talking

"They just somehow keep making their way into my mind, I can't help but feel like they still care for me because-"the words that came out of her mouth shook, they held no confidence

"Because why? Because someone who cares about you would leave you dying? They never even came back to look for you… because you see people live their lives bound by what they accept as correct or true, that's how they define 'reality' but the reality you might have once accepted turned out to be a mirage. You can't truly change unless you're set free from the bonds you once called your reality."

Sasori and Deidara decided to continue on ahead of the two, not feeling the need to get involved with whatever would happen next

Sakura didn't need to look at him to understand what he was saying it was like he saw through her thoughts and answered every question that remained in her head.

"Those who leave their comrades are worse than scum, that means something you right?" He added walking by her before ending the conversation, "You shouldn't withhold the hatred you have against scum, reciprocate their hatred with yours, you're better with us"

There was no doubt he somehow read her mind, she never even remembered those lost words until he had said it.

His words allowed her to remember the names of people she was struggling to remember just a moment earlier. Names of people she thought were important: Kakashi – Sensei, Naruto, Sasuke, Tsunade, everyone from Team 10, 8 and Team Guy. Names she remembered she held so closely to her, only ending up being names that betrayed her.

'_They don't care about me, they left me, they didn't come back for me'_Anger was slowly taking control of her mind and she began walking again. This time she didn't feel pain in her injuries, '_This was the result of their betrayal, this arm is because of them'_she thought before grabbing her severely broken arm and gritted her teeth. The anticipated pain disappeared into her thoughts and turned into anger while she pictured the faces of those who betrayed her. _'I don't care about them.'_

She couldn't believe her own thoughts.

"This must be hatred…" She thought aloud before taking her headband off.

She stared at the symbol that tied her to what was once her reality before scraping a line through it against the rocks of the cave wall.

"I see you've accepted hatred." A new voice called out

Being preoccupied with her thoughts she hadn't noticed she was finally here to meet the others.

Facing her were what seemed to be new faces along with the familiar robe with red clouds, she was now facing her new comrades, her new reality.

* * *

Konoha

_Yawns and feet being dragged on concrete could be heard for miles coming from Konoha, they were all told to meet at the entrance of the village as planned, today was the start of their new mission. Sunrise was just approaching and considering the team had been up majority of the night preparing since they had consent from the Hokage for this mission, they were lucky enough to grab 4 hours of sleep before departure._

_It was easier than expected for Kakashi to convince the Hokage; He even played the 'She's both our student' card for good measure. He promised that all they needed was one chance to try and get her back, a promise he felt guilt about. Tsunade eventually gave in seeing as Kakashi countered every argument that she had_

_Resulting in defeat, she and Shizune came up with conditions for the mission:_

_1. Retreat and use common sense, a little mistake like this could cause a repeat of the current situation._

_2. They had 4 days total, and if the mission were to end in failure it would be closed and they were to return._

_3. Keep an eye on your teammate_

_4. Guy was to accompany the mission as well, as he and the other two Jonin (Kakashi and Yamato) would be leaders._

_She instructed for her conditions to be met, and trusted that they would._

_…_

_Team 10 met up with Team 8 and Team Guy on the way and continued as a group, they haven't been up this early since they attended the Academy not to mention it's been a while since all teams took action together at once._

"_How about that… two S rank missions back to back, I'm just ready to do the damn thing and bring her back." Kiba spat out_

_Shino looked over at his teammate, his obnoxiousness was nothing new to him but yet he feels the need to remind him every time, "Now's not the time to self-indulge, Kiba."_

"_But he's right! I say we get the Jonin to treat us to Barbeque to celebrate her return!" Choji suggested. His team was accustomed to being treated to a meal when a mission had been successful, his stomach growled before he reached for a bag of chips he had packed._

_Tenten sighed, "You guys it's great that you're all so confident but this isn't going to be easy….right Neji?"_

_He nodded, "We should save the plans to celebrate for after the mission, prioritize and focus on what's important for-"_

"_HE'S ALREADY THERE; I CAN'T LET MY LOSS TO MY RIVAL GO IN VAIN! STARTING NOW I MUST DO TEN PUSHUPS FOR EACH STEP I TAKE WHEN I GET THERE AS A PERSONAL PUNISHMENT."_

_Nobody knew what caused Lee's random burst of energy, they watched as he took bigger strides while walking, giving him another challenge of making the number of pushups he had to do decrease._

"_Can't his punishment be for him to just shut up? What's he talking about anyway?" Ino was clearly not a morning person, or a person who could tolerate Lee's ridiculous energy._

"_It's N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata murmured, "He's already there alone I saw him". She regretfully wished she had arrived earlier so she could have waited with him._

_Shikamaru looked and made out the familiar blonde hair as well as an obnoxious orange jacket and smiled. "Naruto's early? Who would have thought?"_

_That answer was obvious, he thought. This was Sakura after all, there was no doubt in his mind that Naruto would take this mission to its fullest extent and would refuse to return without her. The thought had its good and bad sides; he just hoped the mission wouldn't cause too much trouble; it was his plan and strategy after all._

_…_

_Naruto saw the team approaching and waved; he used to hate being early until he found out that Sakura was always early before setting off on missions a long time ago. He would wake up and even skip brushing his teeth or washing his face to gamble his luck on getting some alone time with her._

_Everyone gathered around, now to only wait for the Jonin to arrive._

"_Jeez, you would expect the Jonin to have been the first ones here instead of Naruto."_

_Shikamaru stopped complaining and looked over at Naruto expecting him to start an argument about what he had just said; but it was obvious what Naruto had done… what an idiot_

_Rock lee began his pushups or his 'punishment' and Yamato and Guy had arrived, and Yamato concluded that there was one person who had yet to arrive._

Finally breaking his silence to whine, _"Man, Kakashi-Sensei's always late but this is an important mission even I was the first one here, you'd expect him to atleast-"_

"_You__were the first one here Naruto?" Kakashi said in disbelief , he arrived in the middle of his student's sulking before apologizing for being a bit late._

_Hinata answered for him with admiration, "He was here way before all of us…"_

"_It's obvious it's because he didn't sleep"_

_Everyone turned to Shikamaru, "I understand you were anxious but it's important to rest up before a big mission. We only have four days"_

_The Jonin looked at Naruto to confirm then back at each other with disappointment._

"_Well it's too late to rest up now, eat these you'll feel as youthful as you need for today" Guy sang before handing Naruto a handful of Soldier pills while displaying a thumbs up_

_He ate all of them without hesitation having skipped breakfast along with sleep._

"_Sleep was the last thing on my mind" He explained with his mouth full, "I was busy reminding myself I won't lose another member of Team 7, or any of my comrades. I promise on my life that I won't lose any of you either". Naruto was back to his normal self_

_He jumped up standing on top of the gate looking down at his team_

_"Let's do this!" he cried, almost loud enough to wake the whole village._

"_Did those pills really give him that much energy in one minute?" Kakashi questioned with a sweat drop._

"_It weren't those pills, it's his determination and feelings that are driving him no matter how tired he is" Sai walked forward to stand beside Naruto and smiled, "It's how we all feel, we just don't have the same effect yet" _

Someone knowing only very_ little about emotions he was surprisingly able to speak for them all once again._

_Naruto looked over at Sai; the timing of that smile couldn't be any more perfect, before it caught on with the rest of the team._

"_We'll definitely bring her home"_


End file.
